Voices of Influence: The Podcast with Criss Madrigal

Some women reinvent once. Carol Boston has done it at least three times: collegiate and professional tennis player, Fortune 100 sales leader, and now an award-winning speaker, best-selling author, and certified CodeBreaker trainer. What struck me most wasn’t how many times she started over. It was how : rarely with a plan, often with resistance, and almost always because someone saw something in h...

Over the past year, I’ve spent most of my energy amplifying other women’s voices. I brought them into my community as guest experts. I interviewed them on my podcast. I gathered them in collaboration books. In June, I hosted a virtual event called Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment , which streamed on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. It featured women leading in their power across health, wea...

A woman sits across from Julie Ciardi in a business meeting. She’s 59. Behind Julie is a shelf of copies of her book, and the cover has three words: 50 Not Finished. The woman reads it and says one word. “Yep.” Julie says almost every woman near or over 50 reacts the same way. They don’t ask what it means or what the book is about. They just recognize it immediately, as if someone had finally said...

What if the guidance you’ve been searching for has been with you all along? In the final episode of my Mini Audiobook Series, I’m reading my chapter, The Spark Within , originally published in the collaboration book Spark in October 2025. This chapter takes you into one of the most spiritual experiences of my life—from a brilliant light that first appeared in my sleep to a QHHT session that brough...

What happens when the life you built, the identity you carried, and the beliefs you once trusted no longer fit the woman you are now? In Chapter 4 of my Mini Audiobook Series, I’m reading A Journey to My Remembrance , originally published in the 2025 collaboration book Sacred Redesign . This chapter takes you into one of the deepest seasons of my own reinvention: leaving a 20-year corporate career...

One of the questions I hear most often when I talk with women about becoming contributing authors in a collaboration book is how quickly they can expect to see a return on their investment. Most people assume the ROI begins once the book is published. I see it differently. The return begins the moment you say yes, because that is the moment the opportunity starts working for you. A collaboration b...

Sometimes the biggest changes in our lives begin long before anyone else can see them. In Chapter 3 of my Mini Audiobook Series, I’m reading “The Shift to Abundance,” originally published in Hispanic Stars Rising, Volume V in October 2024 during Hispanic Heritage Month. I wrote this chapter about a moment when our bank account was unexpectedly wiped down to zero and the surprising realization that...

What happens when you achieve the life you were taught to want then realize it no longer feels like yours? In Chapter 2 of my Mini Audiobook Series, I’m sharing my chapter Live Your Dream from Latinas Rising: Breaking Generational Chains and Becoming Changemakers , a collaborative book I brought together and published in 2024. This chapter takes you back to my childhood between Mexico and the Unit...

What happens when the life you’re living requires so much of you that somewhere along the way, you lose yourself inside of it? Welcome to Chapter One of my Mini Audiobook Series , where I’m taking you inside five chapters I’ve written over the years—each capturing a different season of my life, my evolution, and ultimately, my reinvention. We begin with “I Honor You,” my chapter from the 2023 coll...

Your story was never meant to end with you. The experiences that changed you, challenged you, broke something open in you, or called you into a new version of yourself carry wisdom. And when you’re willing to share that wisdom, your story can become a bridge between what you’ve lived and the person who needs what you now know. In this short episode of Voices of Influence: The Podcast , Criss explo...

The story you’ve been hesitant to share may be the exact story another woman needs to hear. Your lived experience, the lessons you’ve learned, the moments that changed you, and the wisdom you carry can become a bridge for someone else. That’s why I’m opening the invitation to become a contributing author in Voices of Influence: Women Leading in Alignment. This collaboration brings together women w...

What happens when you stop looking outside yourself for the right words, the right strategy, or the right path—and become willing to trust the truth already moving through you? Today on Voices of Influence: The Podcast with Criss Madrigal , I’m sharing a powerful keynote from Jaclyn Shaw , spiritual mentor, bestselling author, speaker, and a mentor of mine for the past several months. Jaclyn origi...

If you’re over 45 and quietly wondering whether it’s too late to become someone new, I want to save you some time: reinvention was never the hard part. Clarity is. I know because I did it. At 44, I walked away from a 20-year corporate career — three degrees, a six-figure income, all the boxes checked — to rebuild my life on my own terms. And the thing that finally moved me wasn’t a bigger goal or...

You’ve tried all the things. You’ve hired the coaches. You’ve tweaked the plans. And still — nothing changes. What if the block isn’t in your business or at all? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Carol Mortarotti — revenue expansion strategist, former professional tennis player, and one of the very few women who worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Carol’s path to this work...

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What happens when you have the career, the success, the life that looks right on the outside, but you’re standing on your balcony watching fireworks and feel completely numb inside? That was Laura Peoples’ wake-up call. And it changed everything. In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Laura Peoples, the Love Coach and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment...

What if your money isn’t actually the problem — it’s the system you don’t have around it? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Lisa Marie Robinson — the Sassy Wealth Queen, Fractional CFO, and money mentor — and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment . Lisa works with women entrepreneurs who are making the money but not mastering it. She helps them stop...

What if everything you’ve been through — the symptoms no one explained, the years of holding it all together, the career pivot you never planned — was actually preparing you to help someone else? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Amy Benjamin Moore — menopause coaching specialist, author, and recently retired teacher of 31 years — and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influen...

What if the opportunity in front of you right now — the one you’ve been overthinking — is actually a portal to a version of yourself you haven’t yet met? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Rosaly Didonna — soul-aligned coach, speaker, and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment . Rosaly helps women align with their truest self, their soul self, so they...

What does it look like to rebuild your life when everything you thought you knew about yourself has been dismantled? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Maria Lloyd — licensed marriage and family therapist of 24+ years, certified coach, and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment . Maria specializes in helping women heal from narcissistic abuse and compl...

We’re halfway through 2026. Pause for a second. Take a breath. And ask yourself honestly — are you still aligned with the goals, the vision, the desires you set in January? Are you moving in the direction of the life you actually want? Or have the months quietly slipped by and those dreams have found their way to the back burner? If you started the year strong — with a word of the year, a vision b...

In this Top 50 Voices of Influence Speaker Series, Criss Madrigal sits down with Thyra Newby, bestselling author, speaker, transformational life coach, and board-certified clinical hypnotherapist, for a powerful conversation on breaking generational patterns, releasing the roles we were placed in, and using our voice as a path to healing, visibility, and legacy. Thyra shares how saying yes to shar...

In this Top 50 Voices of Influence Speaker Spotlight, I had the honor of introducing Anita Karadalian-Girgis, one of our keynote speakers for Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment , happening June 15–19, 2026 . Anita is a somatic mindset coach who helps women come back into their bodies, expand their nervous system capacity, and reconnect with the version of themselves who is ready to liv...

In this episode of Voices of Influence , I sat down with Shannon Hernandez, one of our speakers for Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment , for a conversation that moved through health, self-advocacy, functional medicine, and the deeper reason our voices matter. Shannon is a nurse practitioner based in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and she is currently building a virtual functional medicine pract...

What happens when you stop waiting to feel ready… and choose yourself anyway? In this episode of Voices of Influence , Criss Madrigal sits down with Joyce Ayers, Divorce Strategist , for a real, unfiltered conversation about alignment, identity, and the courage it takes to use your voice—especially when it feels uncomfortable. This isn’t a conversation about having it all figured out. It’s about w...